Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1890 — Gotham’s Business Men. [ARTICLE]

Gotham’s Business Men.

The New York business man would scarcely survive as the fattest compared with his more provincial brother-in-trade, writes Charles T. Murray. He rarely does anything when he agrees to do it, and will not do what he agrees to if he can make a present gain or is not compelled to do it. He will promise you anything and betray the greatest interest and anxiety to please. You go away and await the result. It is invariably a disappointment. At fir-t you swear and fret—next time go to another shop, to be subjected to the same vexation. In my two years’ residence here I have known but a single tradesman -who oame when he agreed to come, did what he agreed to do, charged what he agreed to charge. He was a plumber. I told him of it. “I am a Western man,” he oaid. That settled it. This careless disregard of obligations extends to every class with whom I have bad business dealings. Cheat? Well, I should say so. The very man who wants to retain your custom, and whose interest it is to treat you fairly and decently, will never lose an opportunity to rob you. Yous grocer, your butcher, your iceman, your milkman, every <ene of them, will cheat you at every turn. If you catch them, as you will eveiy now and then, they will ignore the exposure as calmly and philosophically as would a hardened convict. They know the chances .are the other fellows have treated yon the same way. You can’t get away ifrom it—you can only keep a watch. I’ve had my butcher’s daughter, a blooming lass of 15, acting cashier in her father’s shop, deliberately try time and again to beat me out of 10 cents or a quarter making change. The old man himself has sobbed me 'repeatedly in a small way under the guise of business. My grocer does the -same thing. The same may be truthfully -said of all the small tradesmen I have yet patronized. The only limrt I hive found is in the amount and their ability to elude your watchfulness. Men cheat the world over; but heretofore I have found that class a small one. In Now York 'the' honest tradesman is an exception, and petty thievery the rule. Where the average New York businessman goes,•eventually. he will have no use for -flannel underwear.